Specialized license plates: professional sports.

Existing law authorizes a state agency to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and requires the DMV to issue those license plates if the agency receives 7,500 applications within a 12-month period, among other requirements. Existing law requires those license plates to have a design or contain a message that publicizes or promotes the state agency, or the official policy, mission, or work of the state agency. Existing law requires the DMV to charge certain additional fees for specialized license plates and deposit those fees in the Specialized License Plate Fund for allocation to the sponsoring agency, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Parks and Recreation to apply to the DMV to sponsor a license plate program for the issuance of license plates bearing the officially licensed logo, emblem, or trademark provided by a California professional sports franchise, upon entering into a memorandum of understanding with the franchise to participate in the program. The bill would authorize the department to increase the additional fees for the issuance, renewal, or transfer of the specialized license plate for each specialized license plate program sponsored pursuant to these provisions, and would require the revenue generated from the license plates to be deposited, as specified, into the California State Parks Account created by the bill in the Specialized License Plate Fund, for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the California State Parks Office of Grants and Local Services, for funding local parks and recreation grant programs, and into the California Professional Sports Franchise Nonprofit Organization Account created by the bill in the Specialized License Plate Fund, for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the nonprofit organization identified in the memorandum of understanding, for funding charitable purposes of the nonprofit organization.